Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano Unveil 'Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas' - A New Installation Within the Historic San Lorenzo Church in Venice
Artists Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano are set to unveil a new installation titled Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas at Ocean Space in Venice, Italy within the historic deconsecrated San Lorenzo Church. With the installation, the artists have created an evolving ecosystem filled with large-scale sculptures depicting imaginary creatures. The installation is on view with free admission as part of Thus waves come in pairs, Ocean Space’s 2023 exhibition curated by Barbara Casavecchia, a Milan-based independent curator and critic. Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas is a co-commission between TBA21–Academy and Audemars Piguet Contemporary, and highlights the two programmes’ parallel missions: to support artists in research and artistic production, which encourages dialogue and imaginative thinking for a global audience.
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With Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas, Berlin-based artists Petrit Halilaj (b. 1986) and Álvaro Urbano (b. 1983) are creating an evolving ecosystem comprising over 30 large-scale sculptures of hybrid aquatic, terrestrial, and aerial creatures, set beneath an egg-shaped moon that appears to have the same materiality as the walls of the former church. The installation is inspired by a popular song in Spain titled Ay mi pescadito, where young fish go to school at the bottom of the sea to study forms of survival and belonging. The artists have created an installation which explores cohesion as well as resistance or disharmony between different species, or between living organisms and objects.
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With Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas, Berlin-based artists Petrit Halilaj (b. 1986) and Álvaro Urbano (b. 1983) are creating an evolving ecosystem comprising over 30 large-scale sculptures of hybrid aquatic, terrestrial, and aerial creatures, set beneath an egg-shaped moon that appears to have the same materiality as the walls of the former church. The installation is inspired by a popular song in Spain titled Ay mi pescadito, where young fish go to school at the bottom of the sea to study forms of survival and belonging. The artists have created an installation which explores cohesion as well as resistance or disharmony between different species, or between living organisms and objects.
Above the creatures, a large egg-shaped sculpture hangs from the ceiling and seems to be floating in the space. The egg is covered with a chalky material that resembles the walls of the building. Reflecting the remnants of the space, the materiality symbolises how everything can be reused and transformed as part of the cyclical nature of our world. It evokes possibilities of alternative future forms of life, transformation, and parenthood to be reimagined.
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Throughout the exhibition run, a cast of musicians and performers will activate the installation at varying durations and intervals. In between performances, gull costumes, which Halilaj and Urbano will wear for two appearances, will be situated within the exhibition, welcoming visitors to the space as sculptures. They represent creatures from the Venice lagoon observing the evolving ecosystem from above. It is the gulls which coordinate the shared performance, bringing the collective action of the creatures together.
The curatorial team at Audemars Piguet Contemporary and Casavecchia worked closely with Halilaj and Urbano to develop and support the creation of the co-commissioned installation. The duo shares a life together in Berlin yet typically maintain separate practices. This project is a unique opportunity to see the artists’ work together on a large-scale installation. Like previous works, this installation explores and negotiates the space between two realities: the human and the natural world. Both of their practices imbue personal, playful elements that work to ask questions of societal norms.
“The work blurs our binary sense of the world. An egg-shaped moon, aquatic creatures becoming terrestrial and aerial, an orchestra playing a symphony that emerges from the waters and syncs with the moon cycles; these and more stories guide our show at Ocean Space. The installation echoes a children’s song, where young fish go to school at the bottom of the sea on order to study forms of resistance.”
Petrit Halilaj and Álvaro Urbano - Artists
“It has been a true pleasure to accompany the development of this new installation, Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas, jointly conceived by Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano with the help of their Berlin-based studio, as well as to collaborate with the curatorial team at Audemars Piguet Contemporary. From the Ocean we can learn that relationships between living beings and ecosystems are plural, fluid, and constantly changing. Attuning with this movement is essential, in order to imagine and construct alternative futures. The artists invite us to synchronise our actions to practice new forms of togetherness.”
Barbara Casavecchia
Curator of ‘Thus waves come in pairs’ at TBA21–Academy
“It has been an honour to collaborate with artists Petrit Halilaj and Álvaro Urbano on this immersive and interactive installation. Together they approach themes of transformation and belonging, embracing the notion that when ‘nothing is wasted, everything is transformed.’ We are so pleased to be sharing this project with Barbara Casavecchia and TBA21–Academy, a programme that is in line with our commitment to supporting artists in their creative development with the shared belief that art can offer new perspectives and ways of thinking about our world.”
Audrey Teichmann
Art Curator, Audemars Piguet Contemporary
“Seek Beyond”.
#AudemarsPiguet #APxArt #tba21academy
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